Andy Warhol

Bufferin and The Velvet Underground in Boston

Location

PICA at West End

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Presented by Cinema Project

This program features two 33-minute, rarely-screened works by Andy Warhol (33 minutes is the full length of a 1,200 foot roll of film). Bufferin is a tense and humorous portrait of poet (and at the time Factory studio assistant) Gerard Malanga, edited in-camera and including extensive use of Warhol’s signature strobe cut. In it Malanga reads aloud from his journal, but the gossip is slyly masked as he substitutes people’s names with the name of the familiar aspirin brand. Shot during a 1967 concert at one of the band’s favorite venues, The Velvet Underground in Boston is thought to be one of only two known films with synchronous sound of the band performing live (and the only one in color). The film demonstrates a number of Warhol’s camera techniques including strobe cuts, sweeping panning shots, and in-and-out zooms, mimicking the experience of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and meant to overwhelm.

Filmmaker JJ Murphy, author of the recently published book The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol will be in attendance to discuss Warhol’s film work and techniques. All films screened on 16mm.

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